In the thread about 57252 hydraulic brakes were mentioned, and the dislike of Ettore for them.

My little theory:

Ettore had used hydraulic brakes before, but had a nice share of problems with them, very probably because materials at that time were not that good (leather seals, leather hoses). That is why he rendered them useless at the time.

He perfected the cable brakes, and relied on them heavily.

After materials were developed more, hydraulic brakes became a possibility again, but combining Ettores bad experience with them, and his stubborness at times, he must have had a hard time applying them to their cars.

Ironicaly Messier Bugatti became an important player in hydraulic airplane brakes...

Anyone with comments / corrections / additions?

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Vive la Marque !!

According to Conway (GPB - Page 199) the contrast between the excellent (cable) brakes of the Type 35 and the poor design of previous cars (hydraulic and cable) was so great "it seems almost incredible that the same designer was responsible for both".

Perhaps the answer is something as simple as EB getting in a brake design expert, but being so put off hydraulic brakes by the previous effort only giving this unknown expert a brief to develop a cable braked system. In typical EB stylee, the good work was credited to him.

To back up the above argument, it is known that EB kept outdated design philosophies going long after other people had moved on to more advanced techniques. Non-pressurised oil systems spring to mind.

SB